Pakistan's deposed top judge, who has became a focus for opposition to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, got a hero's welcome in his hometown of Quetta yesterday at the beginning of a tour of the country to meet lawyers.
Former Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and nine others were freed from nearly five months of house arrest last week on the orders of new Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.
"I'm happy coming home after 18 months. Quetta is my hometown," Chaudhry said as he got off a flight from the Islamabad.
PHOTO: AFP
Chaudhry and dozens of his colleagues seen as hostile to former army chief Musharraf's re-election as president in October were dismissed in early November when Musharraf imposed a six-week period of emergency rule.
Chaudhry was detained at his home in Islamabad until last week.
"By staging a marvelous welcome we want to send a message to the dictator, that the chief justice is the most popular person in Pakistan, wholeheartedly supported by the masses," said Ali Ahmed Kurd, a veteran lawyers' leader and Chaudhry supporter. "The judiciary must be restored."
Musharraf swore in 24 members of Gilani's Cabinet yesterday, 11 of whom were from assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's party
Leaders of the two coalition parties, Bhutto's widower Asif Ali Zardari and Sharif, have promised to reinstate Chaudhry and his colleagues through a parliamentary resolution within 30 days of forming a government.
But that is likely to trigger a show-down between the new government and the president, who will be worried the judges, if reinstated, would take up challenges to him that could see his October re-election ruled unconstitutional.
About 500 political activists waving party flags and black-suited lawyers thronged Quetta's small airport shouting "long live the chief justice" and "Go Musharraf, go."
They showered Chaudhry with rose petals as he came out of the airport terminal.
More supporters were waiting outside the airport.
Security was tight with police carrying automatic rifles standing by and at least three armored personnel carriers at the airport.
Aitzaz Ahsan, a fierce critic of Musharraf and Chaudhry's main lawyer, said Chaudhry's supporters would not organize protests to press for Chaudhry's reinstatement but would wait for the government to keep its promise to reappoint the judges.
"If the judges are restored within 30 days then the movement will obviously end. But if not, this movement will continue,"Ahsan said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS